No date has been set for that meeting, school officials said. School board members and administrators could not be reached for comment on the teachers' vote because they were involved in back-to-school meetings.

''I was pleasantly surprised -- not because they approved the contract -- but by the margin of the vote,'' said Steve Stewart, VEA executive director. ''It's a strong indication of their support for the package.''

Stewart said the early resolution of the labor contract was important to teachers. ''This is the first time in several years that a tentative agreement has been reached so that a ratification vote could be held before school started,'' he said.

Last year the two sides did not reach an agreement until the last day of November, after months of negotiating. The average increase was 7.25 percent in pay and benefits for 1987-88.

Late Tuesday, the unofficial election count showed 2,491 of the county's 2,550 teachers had cast their ballots. VEA officials said 1,930, or 77.5 percent, voted for ratification while 561, or 22.5 percent opposed it.

The contract increases the starting salary for a new teacher from $17,307 to $19,207, said VEA president Pete Straube.

Other provisions hammered out between the school district and VEA negotiators included:

-- Increase top pay for teachers with doctorates and 30 years of experience from $33,801 to about $35,000 a year.

-- Provide a full-time adult teacher's aide if a kindergarten teacher has 25 or more students in class.

-- Begin training administrators on a new method of evaluating teachers in the fall with full use of the new system by the 1989-90 school year.